Please read the following policy carefully before using this website.
PURPOSE & SCOPE
The purpose of this privacy policy (the “Policy”) is to inform you of the personal information that PHL Financial Group Ltd., Morteq Lending Corporation, Oakhill Lending Corporation, PHL Capital Corporation, and their parents, subsidiaries and affiliates (“PHL”, “we”, “our” or “us”) may collect from you when visiting or using the website located at phlcapital.com (the “Website”), and how we may use and/or disclose that information. PHL also collects other types of personal information, including employee personal information, the terms and conditions of which are covered by another Privacy Policy, which is available from our Privacy Officer. PHL is committed to protecting your privacy and will manage your personal information in accordance with the B.C. Personal Information Protection Act and any other applicable provincial or federal legislation.
CONSENT
By accessing and continuing to use the Website, you acknowledge the notices in this Policy and you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Policy. By completing and submitting investment and/or financing application or information forms, you consent to the collection and use of your personal information for the purposes outlined in those forms and applications, this Policy, or as otherwise explained to you by PHL.
You may withdraw your consent at any time by giving PHL reasonable notice, but consent may not be withdrawn where doing so would frustrate performance of a legal obligation. In some cases, PHL may seek your consent for the use and disclosure of your personal information after it has been collected, but before it has been used or disclosed (e.g. where it wants to use your personal information for a purpose not previously identified to you). Personal information will not be used or disclosed for any new purpose without first identifying the new purpose and providing notice to or obtaining the consent of the individual, as applicable, unless permitted by law.
COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
PHL will take reasonable steps to limit the amount and type of personal information it collects, uses and discloses.
Personal Information You Provide to PHL
PHL will collect personal information through the Website when you voluntarily provide it. For example, we collect your name and e-mail address when you complete the “Contact Us” form on the Website to send us a message or inquiry. We collect the personal information to provide you with the information or service that you have requested, as applicable.
PHL will also collect your personal information when you, or your broker or agent (as applicable), complete and submit to us an information or application form, including the following forms which can be downloaded from the Website: (1) the Investor Information Form; (2) the Corporate Investor Information Form; and/or the (3) the Mortgage Application. This includes your name, contact information, date of birth, Social Insurance Number, your driver’s license number, financial information (e.g. your bank account number, annual income, real estate income and assets, and debts and liabilities), marital status, employment information, personal information about your beneficiary and/or co-applicant (if applicable).
You may choose not to provide certain requested personal information to PHL. However, this may restrict or prevent PHL from allowing you to invest with us or from providing you with a loan. It may also affect your ability to receive certain information from PHL or affect your ability to access or use certain sections of the Website.
PHL Investor Portal
All PHL investment clients will have the option of signing up for an online account to allow them to view information about their investments with PHL, including statements and trade confirmations, and to have access to the latest investment-related documentation (“Investor Portal”). PHL uses a third party service provider, Exempt Edge Inc. (“EEI”), to provide a platform for its Investor Portal. PHL clients who sign up for an Investor Portal will be able to access their account via a link on the Website, which will take you to an external site hosted by EEI (phl.exemptedge.com). To initiate the opening of an Investor Portal account, PHL uses the name and contact information (including e-mail address) that you have provided to it. EEI will have access to that information, as well as any other personal information needed in order to host and administer the Investor Portal on behalf of PHL.
Automatically Collected Personal Information
PHL automatically collects the following non-personally identifiable information from visitors to the Website:
the web browser and operating system you are using;
the date and time of the visit;
the sections of the Website you visit, as well as the pages read and the images viewed;
certain content that you download from the Website;
if you were on another website before visiting the Website and if that website referred you to our Website, the URL of that previous website; and
the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your Internet Service Provider.
We do not link any of the above information with information that is personally identifiable to you. We collect this data in an aggregate format for a number of reasons, including to understand the traffic on our Website, how it is used, and how we can improve it. We do not share this aggregate data with third parties except for the possible use of web analytics companies as described below.
PHL uses Google Analytics to track and analyse your use of the Website and to improve users’ online experience. Web analytics tools tag web pages to capture a limited amount of data (which may include the IP address of your computer and the device or network being used to access the pages). This data is used for aggregate reporting purposes. Google may use cookies and other tracking technologies to perform its services. To learn more about Google’s privacy practices, including how you can view and edit your preferences, please see the Google Privacy Policy.
Like many websites, our Website uses “cookies”. A cookie is a commonly used piece of software that tracks user activity on the Website and is capable of enhancing your visit to the site. Cookies enable our Website to save and retrieve information that you enter. Cookies may remain on your computer after you leave the Website. You can disable cookies by adjusting the settings on your internet browser, however, disabling cookies may affect your ability to access some pages on the Website.
How PHL Uses Your Personal Information
PHL may use the personal information that it collects for the following purposes:
To contact and correspond with you regarding your use of the Website;
To verify your identity and for fraud prevention purposes;
To verify your creditworthiness, ability to pay, and security available;
To determine your eligibility for our investment and mortgage products and services;
To open an investment account;
To set up and manage automatic payments;
To service your investments and/or mortgage with PHL, and provide you with advice and services associated with your PHL account;
To pay you a return on your investment;
To enforce and collect on a loan;
To open an Investor Portal account;
To send you information about PHL products and services, news about PHL, announcements, event invitations, and other information we think may interest you;
To respond to specific requests and inquiries from you, including to provide you with information that you request such as investor statements, share offering updates;
To process suggestions and comments provided by you and to understand your current and future needs (for example, by conducting client surveys);
To administer our Website and protect the security of the Website when necessary;
To facilitate such other services and activities, as we may identify at the time;
To investigate client complaints; and
To meet legal and regulatory requirements, such as tax reporting requirements and requirements set out by securities regulators.
Personal information will only be used to fulfill the purpose for which it was originally collected, or for a use consistent with that purpose, unless you expressly consent otherwise or we are required or permitted by law to use the information for this new purpose without your consent.
Generally, PHL will collect personal information directly from the person to whom the personal information relates. However, PHL does collect personal information from third parties such as credit reporting agencies, brokers, and other agents. For example, if you use a mortgage broker to assist you in your mortgage application, we may collect and exchange information with them in order to determine your eligibility for a loan.
If you provide PHL with your e-mail address and “opt-in” to receiving messages from us via the e-mail address provided, you may receive electronic communications from us from time to time. In order to send you electronic communications, we use a third party electronic communications company, currently Mailchimp. These electronic communications will provide you with our contact information and a method to opt-out and unsubscribe from receiving marketing information and/or any further communications from us. You can also opt-out of receiving further communications from PHL by contacting the Privacy Officer via one of the methods noted below.
DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
From time to time, PHL may disclose certain personal information to third party service providers, with whom it has contracted to provide certain services on behalf of PHL. For example, PHL may use third party service providers to provide website server hosting and a platform for the Investor Portal, for data storage, electronic mail distribution, and for marketing purposes. If you use a mortgage broker, agent or other third party to assist you in your mortgage application, we may exchange information with them in order to determine your eligibility for a loan.
The third party service providers will have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but are only provided the limited amount of information required to perform their services. When PHL uses third party service providers, it requires the providers to protect your personal information in accordance with the law and with the same or more stringent security and privacy standards than PHL. Any such disclosure of your personal information by PHL to a third party service provider will be conditional upon the information being used solely for the purpose for which it has been disclosed.
From time to time, PHL may use third party service providers who are located outside of Canada. For example, Mailchimp, the marketing platform that PHL uses to manage its electronic mailing list and to send electronic communications to PHL clients, and Google Cloud, which PHL uses for data storage solutions, are both located in the United States. As a result, your personal information may be stored, accessed or used in the United States and may be subject to the laws and access by government or regulatory organizations in that jurisdiction. To learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices, please see its privacy policy at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/. To learn more about Google’s privacy practices, please see its privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy. If you have any questions about PHL’s policies and practices with respect to service providers outside of Canada, including its collection, use, disclosure, and storage of personal information, you can contact the PHL Privacy Officer at the contact information listed at the end of this Policy.
PHL works with third party trustees such as Olympia Trust Company, CIBC Wood Gundy, National Bank Financial and SGGG Fund Services, who provide PHL with treasury services and are used by PHL clients to open self-directed registered accounts. As a result, your personal information (including the information you provide on a PHL investor information or application form) may be shared with them for the purpose of allowing them to register securities in your name, to issue you statements, and to administer your investment account.
Except as otherwise noted in this Policy, PHL will only share your personal information outside PHL with your consent, or where we use it to provide you with information and services that you request (in which case we will consider you to have given implied consent).
PHL may also disclose your personal information where authorized or required by law. For example, we may disclose your personal information to comply with a subpoena, in response to a law enforcement body with the lawful authority to obtain the information, pursuant to an investigation into the breach of a law, or to our legal counsel.
SAFEGUARDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
PHL takes reasonable steps to protect your personal information. We use security arrangements to protect against unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, and disposal, in a manner appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. PHL’s employees with access to personal information are required to respect the confidentiality of such information.
The Website includes links to external websites. Once you leave the Website, this Policy does not apply. PHL is not responsible for the privacy practices, collection of personal information, or content of external websites. PHL is not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised user IDs, passwords or for any activity on your Investor Portal account via unauthorized password activity. You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your account by, for example, choosing a robust password and keeping your login ID and password private. PHL is not responsible for any failure by you to secure your own devices and their access to the Internet or your use of public, unsecured networks. PHL also is not responsible for any failure by you to eliminate malware. These failures and others can make you vulnerable to privacy breaches and would put you and your data at risk.
RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal information collected by PHL will be retained in accordance with applicable privacy and securities legislation, and in accordance with PHL’s document retention policies and practices. If personal information has been used to make a decision concerning an individual, PHL will keep the personal information for at least one year and, if necessary, a reasonably sufficient additional period to allow the individual to have access to the information after the decision has been made.
ACCESS AND CORRECTION TO PERSONAL INFORMATION
Individuals will have access, as permitted by law, to their personal information that is in our custody or control. Individuals will also be able to request that corrections and/or updates be made to their personal information.
It is your responsibility to provide any updates to your personal information to PHL in writing. This can be done by contacting PHL in writing at the contact information noted below, with sufficient detail to enable PHL to identify the personal information being sought and/or the correction requested. When you contact PHL, we may ask for further information to confirm your identity and the nature of the information being sought.
PHL will make reasonable arrangements to ensure that the personal information it collects, uses and discloses is accurate and complete. In appropriate circumstances, PHL will amend the personal information in its possession and control in response to a request for correction. If the information is subject to interpretation or is an opinion, PHL is not required to change the record, but will annotate the record to indicate the request.
Except for employee personal information, PHL may charge a reasonable fee according to the cost required to retrieve and provide access to the requested information. PHL may provide an estimate of the fee in advance and in some cases, will require a deposit for all or part of the fee.
Within 30 days of the request, PHL will provide you with access to the requested information. If PHL is seeking an extension in order to respond to your request, it will provide you with written notice of the extension. Please note that in some cases, PHL may not provide access to personal information that it holds about you, such as where the denial of access is authorized by law. There are also cases where PHL may be legally required to refuse access to personal information, such as where disclosure could reasonably be expected to threaten the safety or physical or mental health of an individual. If PHL denies your request for access to personal information, it will advise you of the reason for the refusal, and will provide the name, title, and contact information of the designated person who can address the refusal.
QUESTIONS & COMPLAINTS
Questions or complaints regarding this Policy or PHL’s privacy practices can be directed to PHL’s Privacy Officer. You can contact the Privacy Officer using any of the following methods:
Mail: 316 – 5455 152 St., Surrey, BC V3S 5A5
Telephone: 604-579-0849
Email: [email protected]
If your questions or concerns are not resolved to your satisfaction by PHL, those concerns may be reviewed by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia. You may contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia by either of the following methods:
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia
PO Box 9038 Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria B.C. V8W 9A4
Telephone: (250) 387-5629
CHANGES TO THE POLICY
PHL may update this Policy from time to time by posting a new version of the Policy on the Website. PHL’s collection, use, disclosure, and retention of your personal information will be governed by the version of the Policy in effect at that time. We suggest that you review this Policy periodically.